Dzar-Ghan (Alien Barbarians of Vandruk #3)

45. Chapter 45

When we left the privacy of our tent, the sun was rising. The first people were already milling about, preparing breakfast, talking animatedly. The atmosphere was changing, however. Where happiness had predominated last night, this morning, I made out some disgruntled faces and a few mumbled curses.

“They’re getting angry,” I said to Dzar-Ghan. He stopped in his tracks and took in the camp. His gaze darkened when he took my hand to lead me through the gate to the Temple.

“I’m afraid you’re right.”

“Dzar-Ghan.” I stopped him at the Temple steps just as Amber, Dzur-Khan, and Matt walked up to us. “I need to tell you something important before you guys meet this morning.”

“Good morning,” Amber greeted us when she saw our serious expressions. She arched her eyebrows. “What?”

“The people are getting restless. Soon, they will demand the priests’ blood and wail against the gods,” Dzar-Ghan predicted.

“That’s what I want to talk to you about,” I said. “Something similar happened on Earth a few hundred years back.”

Matt rubbed his black beard. “Are you talking about the English Reformation?”

Grateful, I nodded. “Kind of, yes. There was this king—khadahr—who wanted a divorce… anyway, the people on Earth believed in one God at the time, him and angels and Saints… Matt?” Helpless, I looked at him, not sure how much I needed to get into detail.

“I think what she is trying to say is that if you want to prevent civil unrest, you need to give your people something else. If you take their priests or tell them these were the bad guys, they will never trust priests again.”

“What are you suggesting?” Dzur-Khan asked.

“I’ve studied your history since I came here. A long time ago, Vorag spoke to the people without an intermediary; I think you need to lead your subjects back to that.” Matt elaborated.

“You want us to dismantle the Temple?” Dzar-Ghan asked.

I shook my head. “No, no. Nek. The opposite. Make it more accessible again, tell the people that the priests got power hungry, that they overstepped, that everyone can come here and pray to Vorag or the other gods whenever they want, or they can pray to him on the street, from their homes. Tell them that Vorag came to you khadahrs, telling you to take down the High Priest, not the entire priesthood and that it was just one man.”

“We can’t lie to the people. Bzun-Lhan did that already,” Dzar-Ghan warned.

“Is it really a lie?” Dzur-Khan wanted to know. “I mean, Vorag did come to us. He came to Tzar-Than in his dreams and told him to mate a human gallis. He sent a velviph to Gwyn. He led me to Amber. He led you to Jenna, and together you opened the cave.”

“I think you’re stretching it a little,” Dzar-Ghan argued.

“The bottom line is, you need a united front. If you want to stop civil unrest, give them something else to fight, somebody else to hate,” Matt suggested.

I shuddered. This all sounded so familiar. Back in England, the population’s hate had been directed at the Catholics, then at the Protestants, then back at the Catholics, and so on. I didn’t want that for Vandruk. “There has to be another way.”

“There is,” Dzar-Ghan agreed with me. “We are strong; we grieved for ten years together, and we will stand in this together, too. There won’t be any lies anymore. There can’t be. We will thoroughly investigate the priests and find out who knew what.”

“They have to have known,” Dzur-Khan interrupted. “There is no way the other priests didn’t know about the extra mouths being fed, thousands of them.”

“The Gathering is about to begin,” Tzar-Than called from the top of the stairs, jogging down to us. “The rest of the khadahrs arrived last night.”

Matt’s face paled. “I need to… check something. Amber, would you please do a trial read? Now?”

“And, Jenna, keep this safe for me?” He pushed something into my pants pocket, surprising me by this intimate gesture and eliciting a growl from Dzar-Ghan.

“What?” I managed.

“You will know what to do when the time comes,” he whispered for me to hear only and rushed off.

“What was all that about?” Gwyn asked as she and Amber stared at his retreating back questioningly. His exit seemed hasty and panicky.

Dzar-Ghan growled, and I put a soothing hand on his chest, distracting me from whatever Matt had put into my pocket.

“What is that?” Amber asked, pointing at the book Matt had given her.

Gwyn explained, “It’s a tour guide booklet for the new women. Like a Vandruk for Dummies, 101.”

“That’s a great idea.” I took the booklet as Gwyn held it out to me. Inside were amazing pictures of Vandruk. I flipped to a chapter titled Belief System and Trades, which outlined the different professions. Matt had added several pages with language snippets of important words, like healer, water, food, clothes, and so on. Everything was lovingly illustrated by Matt.

Before I had time to study it more, Amber snagged the booklet from my hands, mumbling out loud as she read a paragraph,

Communication

Understanding the Vandruk customs and language is crucial. Vandruks have a unique way of conveying messages through stories and metaphors. Play close attention to the tales shared during gatherings, especially the one about the god Savell.

Amber looked up, staring at Dzur-Khan. “These words almost sound like a message.”

“We don’t use metaphors. We speak our minds clearly,” Dzur-Khan stated.

“Neither do we have a god Savell.” Tzar-Than looked puzzled.

“What does Savell mean?” Amber asked.

“Secrets,” the two khadahrs intoned simultaneously.

Amber nodded as if she had expected this.

A special note on security

Dangerous predators called xythrax and vorathar roam the wildlands. It is important that you never venture out alone. Always stay with your group and alarm a Vandruk as soon as you lay eyes on a maskatel…

Again, Amber looked up at Dzur-Khan. “What is a maskatel?”

Dzar-Ghan, Dzur-Khan, and Tzar-Than looked at each other, astounded.

“Did he just make things up?” Dzur-Khan wanted to know.

Tzar-Than shook his head. “That’s not like him.”

“What does the word maskatel mean?” Amber prodded.

“Let me see, give me the letters,” Dzar-Ghan demanded. Pulling his sword, he etched the corresponding letters in Vandruk into the hard rock underneath his feet. The Vandruks stared at it.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Tzar-Than shook his head. “What else does it say, Amber?”

Amber continued to read,

… maskatels fly high in the sky and have eyes on everything. Its hearing is especially good, and it can converse with its brethren over long distances.

I will always be here to answer any questions.

“We don’t have many birds, and none of them communicate with each other.” Agitatedly, Tzar-Than rubbed his hand through his hair.

“It’s a message from Matt, I think,” Amber pushed, narrowing her eyes and rereading the text in a mumbled voice.

“…. flies high in the sky and have eyes on everything… that sounds like a drone.” Her eyes locked with mine, but not to seek my support, more to focus on something.

Still, I couldn’t help but add, “Drones won’t work here. They tried that. The metal disintegrated.”

“Letaksam,” Dzar-Ghan suddenly yelled.

“Letaksam?” Tzar-Than shook his head.

“Read it backward.” Dzar-Ghan pointed at the word he had etched into the ground. Then he slowly pronounced, “Le ta ksam.”

“The enemy’s eyes and ears,” Dzur-Khan translated.

“Matt isn’t a spy,” Gwyn protested.

“Maybe not a willing one. Why else would he warn us like this?” Amber pursed her lips, tapping her head with her fingers as if willing it to work.

“Matt can’t fly,” Gwyn pointed out.

“No,” Amber agreed, staring off into the distance before her expression turned ashen. “They implanted him with something.”

“What?” I asked, shrinking back against Dzar-Ghan.

Gwyn shook her head. “That’s ridiculous. Nobody has that kind of technology.”

Amber just looked at her, slowly raising an eyebrow.

“They don’t,” Gwyn emphasized.

“That’s the only explanation.” Amber insisted, ignoring Gwyn’s protests. “Before I left Navy Intelligence, there were rumors about the Russians working on a new technology… a chip that could be implanted—” She broke off, her face lighting up as if a lightbulb had gone off. “Bingo.” She snapped her fingers. “I could never figure out why Andres Rodisi was at the poker game that night… now it all makes sense. I’m willing to bet that he sold information about what the Russians had invented to IC.”

Gwyn and I stared at each other at a loss.

“What poker game?” I finally asked when nobody else did.

“Never mind that. IC implanted a chip in Matt’s brain and somehow IC is able to hear and see what he does.”

“Hence his writing in code,” I agreed. “He had to come up with something IC wouldn’t understand.”

“Exactly,” Amber agreed absentmindedly, already poring through the pamphlet some more.

“Now what?” Gwyn asked, pale-faced, staring in the direction where Matt had disappeared.

“He clearly doesn’t want to be involved in our plans.” Tzar-Than folded Gwyn into his arms. “He is a good male.”

I didn’t know Matt very well, but based on what little I had seen of his actions, I agreed with Tzar-Than. I had always paid more attention to what people actually did, rather than what came out of their mouths or what others said about them.

“But metal doesn’t work here,” Gwyn protested. “How could a chip…”

“Uhm, I might,” I announced hesitantly, not liking how all eyes turned to me. “I did some hacking before—”

“Hacking?” Gwyn seemed surprised.

“Yeah, hacking,” I replied a bit defensively. Why did nobody ever expect me to do something… illegal? “I was roped into a job once that wasn’t… on the up and up, so ever since, I like to do some snooping in my new employer’s data system, just to make sure there’s nothing illegal going on…” I broke off.

Amber snickered. “Nothing illegal and IC don’t really go along.”

“I realized that,” I agreed. “Still, honestly, the job coming here was so enticing that I was willing to overlook… certain things…”

“Like what?” Amber kept prodding.

“Like watching IC guards attack the Vandruk and—”

Tzar-Than cut me off, “Never mind, what did you find?”

“Oh, yes. First off, a disclaimer: this is not entirely my area…”

Amber waved me on, and I took a deep breath and closed my eyes to recall what I had read in the database that had caught my attention. Technically, I hadn’t been lying; it wasn’t my area, but knowing I was coming to Vandruk, where all metal disintegrated, it had caught my attention.

“There were articles about Bioelectric Harvesting—”

“Bioelectric what?” Amber interrupted.

“Bioelectric Harvesting,” Gwyn jumped in, her eyes alight. “I took a class in that; it’s about electricity within the human body and how to harvest it to make things like pacemakers work and”—she looked at me with wide eyes—“brain implants.”

“Brain implants.” I nodded. “Yes. Basically, it’s like Gwyn said: let’s say Matt has an implant; that implant would run off the naturally produced electrical signals from his brain and nervous system. Now, if the implant has a neural interface that seamlessly integrates with his brain neurons, it would capture visual and auditory data.”

I knew I had lost the Vandruk, but Amber and Gwyn stared at me, fascinated.

“So how would it transmit?” Amber asked.

“Biophotonic transmission,” I stated, nodding my head and warming up to his more or less hypothetical conversation. “The device could be utilizing light signals that travel through organic channels. All they need is a biophotonic receptor by the wormhole and voila!”

“Okay, you lost me too,” Amber capitulated.

“But wouldn’t you also need some kind of program to detangle the most likely scrambled messages?”

Before I could answer Gwyn—who surprised me with her vast knowledge—Dzar-Ghan stopped our conversation.

“All right, let’s assume Matt has this… implant since he has decided to stay away from us. He could have just told us. Why did he go through all the trouble with the codes and the booklet?”

Amber clicked her short nails against her teeth. “Because he doesn’t want IC to know that we know.”

“Why, it’s not like they can explode a bomb in his head, right?” Gwyn asked anxiously.

That word released an avalanche inside my head. “Shit,” I suddenly cried, and everyone turned to me. “My backpack!”

“What about it?” Gwyn seemed confused.

Instead of answering her, my hand fumbled inside my pant pocket. Cold sweat broke out all over my body at the suspicion rising inside me. My fingers closed around a small box, and I closed my eyes. “Oh no.”

“What’s wrong?” Gwyn asked, alarmed.

I held out my hand with the small, black box.

“He gave you a detonator?” Amber stared at the object in my hand in confusion.

“Oh no,” Gwyn repeated my words, tears gathering in her eyes. “Oh no.”

Tzar-Than was instantly at her side. “Gwyn?”

“He said… he said…” Gwyn sniffed. “He told me that he wanted to go back to the portal. He wanted to go home. One last visit , he said and winked at me right before… before he hugged me. It felt like a goodbye hug.”

Tzar-Than’s expression darkened. “He said something similar to me.”

“He said I would know the right time when to press it.” I still held the detonator in my hand like… like a live detonator.

“What does that mean?” Tzar-Than asked, who hadn’t been present when I demonstrated my little explosion.

“It means that Matt wants Jenna to press the trigger when he enters the portal to destroy it,” Amber said tonelessly.

“What?” I nearly dropped the black plastic box, but Dzar-Ghan enveloped my hand with his.

“No, no.” I shook my head. “I could never.” My entire body shook. How could Matt expect me to press the trigger while he walked through the portal? It would be a suicide mission. Not to mention all the other people inside…

“How is he planning on doing this without IC watching?” Tzar-Than pointed out.

“I’m willing to bet that he is slipping on Jenna’s backpack right now.” Amber pulled in her cheeks, chewing on the inside. Her C4 isn’t that hard to assemble. If he puts it together at night in the dark, they won’t know, or he can do it with his head turned.”

“They would be suspicious, though,” I pointed out.

“Maybe, maybe not. Who knows how they upload his data or how much attention they’re paying to upload it? I mean, we’re talking about a man’s twenty-four-hour activity. Trust me, nobody is going to watch every second. Even if all the data makes it through unscrambled, they just want to pull some intel, but they don’t want to watch him take a dump.” Amber shrugged as if it was the most normal thing to implant a device in someone’s head and observe him.

“Plus, he tells us right here…” Amber read more from the pamphlet.

The Portal

Always remember you are here voluntarily. If you wish to leave, let your khadahr know, and he will assign you a security team to take you back to Earth. There is no shame in wanting to return. Vandruk isn’t for everyone. Life here is very different and should stay that way. At times, the portal might be closed because it has to be carefully managed, but IC will open it at mine or your approach to let us pass. Security will be tight, and a debriefing will take place every time the portal opens. Don’t worry; that is standard protocol. However, you don’t need to worry or be afraid—debriefing is quick and requires a little courage when others handle the operation for you. Just keep in mind that having been on Vandruk, even for a short time, has been an adventure without comparison.

Tzar-Than looked stricken, and Gwyn embraced him to soothe his friend’s coming loss.

In typical Amber fashion, ignoring the turmoil of emotions around her, she continued, “So every time the portal opens is when Matt’s data gets uploaded.”

I wasn’t the most sophisticated person when it came to other people’s feelings, but even I could tell that Tzar-Than and Gwyn were tormented. I hissed, “Amber!”

“What?” She finally glanced up. “Oh.” And after a second, “Sorry.”

She fell quiet for a moment, just like everyone else, but her feet moved over the ground, announcing her impatience to continue. When she couldn’t contain herself any longer, she turned to me. “So will you do it? Or do you want to give the detonator to me?”

Could I?

Could I press the button, knowing it would kill Matt? And every other person in the lab?

It would mean the end of the portal—the end of a threat to the Vandruk world. I looked around. The Temple area wasn’t exactly a representation of Vandruk, but even here, I could make out some of the bushes and trees I had come to love.

It would also mean that I would never be able to return to Earth and would never see my family again.

Just then, a kid laughed. Chased by her mother, they dashed down an alley toward a Vandruk warrior who caught them in his arms. These people had been through so much. Descriptions in history books about how humans had subjugated other humans over the course of thousands of years, never learning from the consequences, always repeating the same pattern, gave the words new meaning to me. These people deserved to be left in peace.

Matt was willing to die for it.

I should be willing to leave my family. A family I had never been that close to anyway.

I glanced at Dzar-Ghan and the incredible love I felt for this man shot through me. Giving me a courage I hadn’t known I possessed.

“For some reason, Matt wants me to do it,” I told Amber and myself. “I will do it.”

“They might build a new portal,” Gwyn warned.

“It’s possible.” I nodded.

“And we won’t know where it will be aimed,” Gwyn added.

Amber shrugged. “Hopefully, in the middle of the ocean.”

Just then, a bloody, battered-looking warrior arrived; out of breath, he looked as if he’d been running for days. “Khadahrs,” he panted.

“Our khadahr, Ghan-Zahr, has been taken prisoner by humans.” The warrior collapsed at the stairs. Szun-Var, Tzar-Than’s First Blade, offered the man his waterskin.

“When did this happen?” Dzar-Ghan pressed out with a locked jaw.

“A day ago. I ran as fast as I could, Khadahr,” the warrior said between deep pulls from the waterskin.

“I’ll get the others.” Dzur-Khan rushed up the stairs, followed by Amber, while Gwyn and I stared at each other helplessly.

“I can’t believe he would let the humans take him prisoner.” Dzur-Khan shook his head.

“Nek, he wouldn’t unless it was his plan,” Tzar-Than asserted.

“Do you think he had the same idea? Closing the portal?” Gwyn asked, hope for Matt gleaming in her eyes.

Dzar-Ghan shook his head. “He doesn’t know we freed the gallies. Doesn’t know they are still alive. That stubborn fool.”

He pulled me toward his chest. “I’m sorry, I’ll need to go talk to the other khadahrs.”

“Go.” I pushed him gently against his chest. “I’ll be fine.”

“We’ll stick together,” Gwyn agreed, taking my hand.

“I love you.” Dzar-Ghan kissed me quickly.

“I know,” I gave him the answer he needed to hear more than me saying the same words back.

Tzar-Than kissed Gwyn, too, and instructed Szun-Var to take care of the other warrior, which he promised he would.

“Well,” Gwyn and I stared up the steps where the men had just vanished into the Temple. “Now what?”

“I should check on the C4 and see if Matt has already taken it. If he hasn’t, I can make it easier for him to get it ready.” I mused.

“I can’t believe you brought explosives.” Gwyn shook her head.

I shrugged. “Part of the job.”

“Excuse me, are you Khadahrshi Jenna?” A Vandruk woman approached me.

“Mynarra,” I uttered, speechless, staring at the beautiful woman, who looked so much better than last night.

“I would like to talk to you.”

“I’ve got to check on… something,” Gwyn excused herself. Giving my elbow a light squeeze, she whispered, “Come and find me… after.”

Numbly, I nodded at her, then pulled up as much self-control as possible and faced Mynarra. “I’m glad you came. I wanted to talk to you, too.”

A slight smile spread across her features, increasing her tragic beauty underlined by a deep sadness in her eyes.

“I talked to Dzar-Ghan yesterday. He told me that he had taken… a new khadahrshi.”

“That couldn’t have been easy for you,” I replied.

“Thank you for that.” Mynarra inclined her head. “Nek, it wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about it for the past ten years. Ten years is a long time. I expected him to find a new khadahrshi, just deep down, I hoped…” she trailed off.

“I’m sorry. So, so sorry. I wish there was something I could do or say.”

She shook her head. “There is nothing, but Dzar-Ghan told me that it was you who opened the cave and exposed all this.”

“He would have done so with or without me.” I downplayed my role, not wanting her to think I was some kind of heroine.

“It helps, you know,” she continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “It helps to know that it was you.”

I didn’t know what to reply, so I stayed silent.

“There is much I need to work out myself.” Mynarra stared off toward the large gates standing open, leading out into Vandruk. “I need to find my family, find out how they were doing all those years. And I need to find out who I am now.” She smiled wanly, returning her gaze to me. “Take good care of him.”

“I will. I love him with all my heart.”

“Thank you.”

I couldn’t help myself. I stepped forward and hugged the much taller woman. After a short hesitation, her arms enfolded me, too.

“If you ever need anything… you’re always welcome.”

“It’s going to take some time, but sa, thank you. Vhan-Ghor, Halana, and Secylly will drop me off at my home on their way back to Catterground. Say goodbye to Dzar-Ghan from me, will you?”

I still wondered if things would have ended differently had she told me that one of the people she was going to see was her brother, Ghan-Zahr. Maybe she would have even found out if she had said goodbye herself to Dzar-Ghan, but she didn’t, so I couldn’t let her know that we were on our way to rescue her brother next. Instead, I nodded, letting go of her. She turned her head. I wasn’t sure if the Vandruk cried, but I could have sworn there were tears in her eyes, making my stomach cramp. My mind whirled a hundred miles an hour. Would all this have happened if we hadn’t opened the wormhole? In a different universe, I was sure Mynarra and Dzar-Ghan would have been happy, but then I would have never known him. Wouldn’t have experienced what true love really was. One person’s misery is another’s happiness . I remembered reading somewhere. At the time, it hadn’t made sense to me, but now I understood, and with all my heart, I hoped Mynarra would find her piece of happiness somewhere, too. The gods knew she deserved it.

I grinned, the gods … I was turning into a full-blooded Vandruk.

I watched Vhan-Ghor and Secylly take Mynarra into their arms, and together the three entered a small house. I was sure Dzar-Ghan’s siblings would take good care of her, which reminded me of my siblings and family.

Something I hadn’t given any thought yet, but if Matt truly blew up the portal, and if I stayed here, I would never be able to contact my family again. They would never know what happened to me.

A cynical part of me was sure that my family would be much better off without me. We had never really seen eye to eye. Now they wouldn’t be burdened with having to figure me out or to pretend to like me.

Still, never was a long time.

There were many things that had been left unsaid between us. A proper goodbye would have been nice.

Of course there were other things as well, practical things like my glasses and contacts. I could live without ever eating a pizza again, but I would sorely miss my tablet and laptop. On the other hand, I would be busy exploring new things.

I sighed. Can’t have everything , I told myself. Maybe if Matt was really going through the portal, I could give him a message, but then I remembered that he would be going to blow himself up. Yeah, that wouldn’t work either.

Down an alleyway, I saw Gwyn approaching. With her was a group of two Vandruks and one human woman, whom I recognized as Lexi. The men each had linked their elbows through hers, looking protective and possessive. Lexi smiled from one to the other, and I remembered Amber hinting at them having a different kind of relationship. Well, good for her. I smirked. Both of the men were stacked, just like all the other Vandruk.

“You okay?” Gwyn asked without preamble.

“Yeah, I will be.” I nodded at the threesome as they turned the other way. Lexi loudly laughed, and I raised an eyebrow at her. “Those three?”

“Yep.” She nodded. “Lexi can’t decide which one she likes better, so for now, they are having their own happily ever after.”

“Interesting. I would have never thought Vandruk men would share…” I trailed off, giving Gwyn an expectant look.

“Oh no. Tzar-Than would never share, and I doubt your guy would either.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think I could handle two of them anyway.”

Gwyn shook her head. “No, one is more than enough for me.”